SCORM: What is this course format and why is it still popular despite being outdated?

Contents:

• Where is the SCORM standard common and where is it not
• How the SCORM standard appeared and developed
• How SCORM courses are structured
• Do you need to know how to program to create a SCORM course?
• What are the limitations of SCORM?
• Why should a course developer know about the format?

SCORM, which stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model, is an international standard that defines the technical characteristics and structure of digital content for online education. This standard ensures the compatibility of e-courses with various learning management systems (LMS or LMS). If a course is developed in accordance with SCORM requirements, it can be easily integrated into various educational platforms, making it a universal tool for online learning. Using SCORM allows for effective management of the learning process and tracking of student progress.

To understand how SCORM works, imagine an electrical outlet. Regardless of whether you're at home, visiting someone, in a cafe, or traveling, you can plug your smartphone charger into it. You don't need to choose the right outlet or use adapters. You simply plug in the device and wait for it to charge. Similarly, SCORM provides a standardized way to interact between educational courses and Learning Management Systems (LMS), allowing users to easily access training materials without the need for additional configuration or adaptation.

A course developed according to the SCORM standard is universally compatible, allowing it to be easily integrated into various distance learning platforms (LMS). Launching a course requires simply uploading the file to the LMS, without the need for additional adapters or complex configuration. This makes SCORM courses an ideal solution for educational institutions and organizations seeking to effectively manage the learning process.

SCORM is not a specific format for educational content, such as a longread, slide course, or video course. It is a packaging format for educational materials that allows for the effective integration and management of content in Learning Management Systems (LMS). Rostislav Poleshko-Ostrovsky, a specialist in distance learning platform market analysis, explained this at the webinar "Debate: Which Formats of Corporate Training Materials Are Most Effective?" organized by the HR-Kitchen project. SCORM provides a standardized approach to the creation and distribution of training materials, simplifying their use across various educational systems. SCORM is a "container" that allows for the integration of various content formats. Within this container, rules for interaction between all its elements are established. It can accommodate virtually any material, from simple slides to interactive simulators, making it a universal training tool. A key element of SCORM is a special player that analyzes the content structure and ensures interactive user interaction. Using SCORM in educational platforms promotes more effective learning and process management, enabling the creation of adaptive and interactive training materials. SCORM is highly flexible and versatile, making it an ideal tool for developers, designers, and administrators. SCORM allows you to integrate content from various sources into a single course, combine elements from different courses, change the tools for creating learning materials, and upload the same course to different learning management systems (LMS) without having to change the structure of the learning content. It is important to note that there are different versions of SCORM. Some LMS support version 1.2, others support SCORM 2004, but many platforms provide compatibility with both versions. This allows users to flexibly adapt their courses to different educational platforms.

Where the SCORM standard is common and where it is not

SCORM, or Sharable Content Object Reference Model, is not a universal standard for all segments of online learning and is not supported by all educational platforms. It is mainly used in the creation of courses for corporate training and in educational institutions, especially universities. This standard allows for the effective management of learning content and tracking of learners' progress, which makes it especially popular in these areas. However, alternative solutions may be used for other segments of online learning, which limits the adoption of SCORM in a broader context.

Digital Learning community leader Pavel Bezyaev explains that the SCORM standard is valuable in corporate training because it allows companies to easily transfer SCORM course libraries from one LMS to another. This is especially important when changing LMSs. Furthermore, companies can purchase ready-made courses from providers created in accordance with a single standard and upload them to their LMS. This approach provides flexibility and convenience in managing employee training.

B2C educational platforms and information businesses show little interest in universal course format standards. Gleb Mikheev, CTO of Skillbox, emphasizes that in this area, customized solutions are more relevant. Each platform develops its own LMS, adapting courses to its unique capabilities and offering features that distinguish it from competitors. In information businesses, platforms that combine the functions of a course builder, a marketplace, and an LMS are most often used. This creates specific technical conditions that make transferring courses between platforms unnecessary. Therefore, educational institutions and companies strive to create a unique user experience, making the issue of a unified standard less relevant in this area.

SCORM is an outdated standard that doesn't always meet the needs of modern online learning and has a number of limitations. Alternatives to SCORM include AICC, xAPI (formerly known as Tin Can API), and CMI5 (Computer Managed Instruction). AICC is also outdated and is the earliest e-learning standard, introduced in the 1980s. In contrast, xAPI and CMI5 are more modern solutions that could replace SCORM.

xAPI enables the integration of simulations and virtual reality elements, and supports experiential, offline (without an internet connection), and collaborative learning. CMI5, in turn, combines the benefits of xAPI and SCORM, ensuring course compatibility with various LMSs and offering advanced learning and analytics capabilities. Thus, for effective online learning, it is worth considering the transition to more modern standards, such as xAPI and CMI5, which meet the current requirements of the educational process.

xAPI and CMI5 are gaining popularity, but SCORM still maintains its position as the leader in e-learning. In the corporate world, companies are reluctant to abandon SCORM due to practical considerations: switching to a new format could lead to the loss of existing courses developed in SCORM. Expert Evgeny Nagorny noted in an "HR-Kitchen" webinar that many organizations have a significant amount of content packaged in SCORM, and no one wants to risk losing it. Furthermore, as the speaker emphasized, businesses often lack the resources to migrate content to more modern standards. Thus, SCORM remains a relevant solution for many companies, providing them with access to existing educational materials and allowing them to focus on development without the need for large-scale changes.

Most likely, higher education institutions continue to use the SCORM format for similar reasons. SCORM ensures the compatibility of e-courses with various learning management systems, which facilitates the process of integrating and using educational materials. This format allows for effective tracking of student progress, learning management, and provision of access to high-quality educational resources. Therefore, universities prefer to maintain SCORM as a standard for the development and distribution of online courses.

How the SCORM standard emerged and developed

Before the emergence of the SCORM standard, there were several attempts to unify online learning. In 1988, the international association of e-learning specialists (AICC) developed a standard that was initially intended for creating courses for airline employees. However, over time, it began to be used in other industries. Despite this, AICC had many limitations, which negatively impacted its popularity. Currently, the AICC standard is used primarily by those organizations that already have a significant amount of educational content in this format. This standard is rarely used in new courses, and development of AICC has been discontinued.

AICC had a significant influence on the development of the SCORM standard. The creators of AICC, working within the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, adapted some of the AICC specifications and recommendations. They refined them and introduced new elements, which ultimately led to the formation of the SCORM standard. This transition was an important step in the evolution of learning management systems and ensured higher standards of integration and interoperability in the field of e-learning.

The SCORM 1.0 standard was first presented in January 2000. This was a preliminary version that was not yet ready for practical use. However, it already laid out the basic principles regarding content packaging and its interaction with learning management systems (LMS). The standard also provided for content description using metadata, which was an important step in improving the organization and searchability of learning materials. The introduction of SCORM opened new horizons in the field of e-learning, ensuring compatibility and standardization in the development of educational content.

Since the release of SCORM 1.0, three more versions of this standard have been developed. Each new version introduced improvements and changes aimed at streamlining the process of creating and managing e-learning. These updates provided greater compatibility, flexibility, and support for modern technologies, which allowed developers to create more effective and interactive learning materials. New versions of SCORM have helped improve the user experience and increase the effectiveness of training programs.

• SCORM 1.1 appeared in 2001. This was the first implemented version of the standard, but it still required development, so it was not widely adopted.
• SCORM 1.2 was released in the same year as version 1.1. This version of the standard details how to store, tag, and open content. It also includes the ability to track learner progress. This version is still supported by most learning management systems.
• SCORM 2004 improved existing features and added new ones. These include the ability to regulate content access conditions (for example, "a student can open module C only if they have completed modules A and B"), as well as track the number of points a student has earned for completing a course and passing tests. This version has been released several editions. The fourth, the most current, was released in 2009.

How SCORM courses are structured

SCORM courses have a modular structure, which allows you to break the learning content into separate elements. These elements can be easily copied, added to other courses, changed in sequence, or outdated materials deleted. Students have the option of mastering modules in a free or predetermined order, which provides a personalized approach to learning. They can move at their own pace, returning to complex topics and reviewing them. Student progress is recorded, allowing them to track their achievements throughout the course. This approach makes learning more flexible and effective. SCORM courses are most often presented as slide-based materials, reminiscent of PowerPoint presentations. These slides can include text, images, audio, and video, as well as interactive elements that allow the user to interact with the content, such as clicking and dragging elements on the screen. However, SCORM is not limited to slide-based courses; this standard is also suitable for packaging video courses and long-form courses. Using SCORM ensures the versatility and compatibility of training materials with various learning management systems (LMS).

Teachers and administrators of the learning management system (LMS) have the ability to closely monitor The process of student interaction with the course. They can track the time spent on the course, test results, videos viewed, and the total number of points earned. This allows for effective management of the learning process, analysis of student progress, and the necessary adjustments to educational programs. This approach contributes to the improvement of the quality of learning and ensures a personalized approach to each student.

Technically, the course is presented as a ZIP archive, known as a SCORM package. This archive contains all the necessary files, the key one being the manifest. This document, written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language), describes in detail the contents of the package, including learning materials, instructions, and the course structure, as well as the course flow. The manifest also includes important metadata. In addition to the manifest, the SCORM package contains resource files representing the learning content, as well as schema files in XSD and DTD formats, which validate the structure of the manifest and its elements. Using SCORM packages provides a standardized approach to creating and distributing e-learning courses, enabling effective learning management and performance tracking.

Once a SCORM package is uploaded to the LMS, interaction between the course and the learning platform occurs through a JavaScript API. This API allows learners to launch the course in a web browser, select modules, and interact with the content. It also allows for saving learning progress, making the process more convenient and efficient. Using SCORM packages and the JavaScript API significantly improves the quality of online learning, ensuring seamless integration and user experience.

Do I need programming skills to create a SCORM course?

At the beginning of the e-learning era, creating online courses required programming skills. However, modern technology has made this process accessible to a wider audience. Today, it is possible to create SCORM courses without special programming knowledge, thanks to specialized course builder services. Although most of them are paid and require some time to learn, the process of using them is significantly simpler and less labor-intensive than programming. This allows instructors and educational institutions to focus on the course content rather than the technical aspects of its development.

SCORM courses can be created on various educational platforms. Popular solutions include Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, iSpring Suite, and other tools that enable the development of interactive learning materials. These platforms offer user-friendly interfaces and a variety of features, such as quiz creation, multimedia embedding, and student progress tracking. Using SCORM standards ensures course compatibility with various learning management systems (LMS), an important aspect for effective online learning. Choosing the right platform depends on your needs and level of experience in developing educational content.

• CourseEditor provides tools for creating longreads that can be exported in popular formats, including SCORM.
• SCROLL also helps assemble longread courses from various blocks and save them in SCORM 1.2 or 2004 packages.
• iSpring Suite is installed as an add-in to PowerPoint and allows you to create SCORM courses.
• EdApp allows you to edit courses in SCORM format and create them from scratch.
• Course Lab is a designer for creating courses from module templates, which also has professional development features (for example, customizing the interaction of the course and LMS via JavaScript).

In course designers, developers have the ability to create training programs using standard elements and adding the necessary educational content. Once completed, the service saves the resulting course in SCORM package format, which can be easily uploaded to learning management systems (LMS). This simplifies the integration process and ensures compatibility with various educational platforms.

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Creating online courses: an overview of design platforms for effective development

In the modern world Online education is becoming increasingly popular, and creating your own online courses opens up new opportunities for learning and development. There are numerous platforms and builders available that significantly simplify the course development process. In this review, we'll explore the best builders for creating high-quality online courses tailored to any need.

Builder platforms offer a variety of tools for creating content, organizing the learning process, and interacting with students. They make it easy to upload materials, create quizzes, and track student progress. Choosing the right builder depends on your goals, budget, and level of technical skill. Some popular platforms include integration options with other services, making the learning process even more convenient.

When choosing a builder for creating online courses, consider features such as the user interface, available templates, customization and integration options, as well as the availability of support and training materials. This will help you not only launch your course quickly but also ensure its high quality and appeal to learners.

Creating online courses using course builders is a great way to share your knowledge and skills, as well as open new horizons for learners. Choosing the right platform will be a key step towards the successful implementation of your project.

What are the limitations of SCORM?

The SCORM standard offers extensive capabilities for managing learning materials, but it also has its limitations. Despite its functionality, some aspects, such as integration with new technologies and adaptive learning, remain outside its scope. This must be taken into account when developing educational programs and choosing the right content creation tools.

SCORM has limited progress tracking features, making it difficult to collect analytics on how users complete the course. Tracking overall student progress is available, and SCORM 2004 allows for the collection of test score data. However, to fully improve a course, simply recording whether a course has been passed or failed is not enough. It's also important to know how much time was spent on each module, whether the student returned to individual materials for review, and other aspects. This level of detail isn't available in SCORM, but is possible in more modern standards such as xAPI, which offer expanded capabilities for analyzing the learning process and student interactions with the material.

Effective learning requires a stable internet connection, which is a significant limitation for the SCORM format. Modern learning management systems (LMS) allow courses to be taken remotely and from mobile devices, offering dedicated apps that provide access to learning in any environment. These apps allow students to study even without an internet connection, saving their progress on their device and uploading data to the server the next time they connect. In contrast, SCORM courses require constant internet access, significantly limiting student access. In addition, with an unstable connection, there is a risk of losing progress, which can negatively affect the learning process.

All SCORM courses run in web browsers, both on computers and smartphones. To ensure convenient course completion on small screens, it is necessary to use a designer that supports the development of educational content for mobile devices. Otherwise, given that most lessons are presentation slides, the text may be too small for comfortable reading, and managing interactive elements will be difficult. There is a common belief that SCORM does not support mobile learning, which is incorrect – the standard itself has no such limitations. Problems may arise if presentations were originally designed for display on large screens. To successfully integrate SCORM courses into mobile learning, it is important to consider the responsiveness of the content and its optimization for various devices.

SCORM packages are significant in size and can take a long time to upload to the learning management system (LMS), as they include all the course media files: audio, video, and images. Uploading SCORM courses to the learning platform is a manual process, requiring specialist input. There is a risk that an administrator will upload an outdated data package, as SCORM does not provide an effective version control system. This can lead to issues with the availability of current content for learners.

While SCORM continues to meet the needs of developers and users of learning courses, its functionality is becoming insufficient. The transition to modern learning standards and the implementation of technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality require more modern tools that are absent from SCORM but present in xAPI. Therefore, it is expected that the new standard will soon gain popularity and gradually replace SCORM. This is also confirmed by the lack of updates to SCORM in recent years.

Why should a course developer know about the format?

Online course creators need to have a basic knowledge of the various course development standards, as well as an understanding of their advantages and disadvantages. This knowledge is especially relevant when developing courses for businesses and educational institutions, where flexibility, versatility, and resource conservation are critical. Understanding standards will enable you to create more effective and adaptive training programs that can easily integrate into existing systems and meet the needs of the target audience. The choice of e-learning standard and format depends on the platform on which the product will be presented. It's important to consider whether you're creating your own LMS or using an external online platform, as well as the formats they support. An equally important factor is the device on which users will be learning, their level of technical literacy, and the methods optimally suited to the learning task. For example, for a mini-course on safety, slides, which are well supported by the SCORM standard, may be sufficient. However, if your goal is to develop a VR simulator for teaching specific hard skills, the SCORM standard will not be effective. Therefore, choosing the right training format plays a key role in achieving educational goals.

When creating a custom course, it's important to determine in advance which platforms you'll distribute it on. Some platforms offer their own course development tools, but they may use non-standard formats, which limits the ability to export the finished course to other platforms. It's important to choose platforms that are compatible with generally accepted standards, such as SCORM, CMI5, and xAPI. A course developed using one of these standards can be sold on multiple platforms, significantly increasing its accessibility and potential audience. Choosing the right platform and standards will allow you to effectively monetize your content and expand its reach.

When developing a course for corporate training, a key factor is choosing the LMS (Learning Management System) of the company whose employees the course is intended for. If an organization has its own unique LMS, courses must be adapted to internal specifications, making generally accepted standards less relevant. If your LMS supports common standards such as SCORM, CMI5, or xAPI, your course should be developed with these standards in mind to ensure compatibility and ease of use. This will simplify the implementation process and improve the effectiveness of employee training.

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